4 ms·

It would be interesting to see how much impact better espresso machines and cheap grinders are having on Nespresso. A decent burr grinder, a Nanopresso and a m

by sien 6y ago

It would be interesting to see how much impact better espresso machines and cheap grinders are having on Nespresso. A decent burr grinder, a Nanopresso and a milk frother is much cheaper than a Nespresso and does something as good. $AUD 10 Aldi beans with that is cheap and excellent.

maccard 6y ago
I can't comment on the actual numbers for Australia, but in the UK at least, there are online shops like hasbean that will roast & grind for you for roughly the cost of a bag of premium supermarket coffee. It'll save you the outlay of a grinder (and it's ground with a grinder that will be far more consistent than what you buy).
- askvictor 6y ago
  But freshly ground coffee is so much different to pre-ground. Once ground, it starts oxidising immediately, so will start to affect the taste pretty quickly.
  - Lio 6y ago
    Apart from being fresher, the grind is also one of the ways you control the pressure you extract at in an espresso machine. Depending on the machine you can either time the shots, use a pressure gauge or just look at the flow coming out and verify by taste. It's not much more complicated than if the pressure is too low the shot will taste sour. So you adjust the grinder to grind larger. If it's too low the shot will be overly bitter. So then you grind smaller. I'm told the ideal pressure is 9 bar but really taste is the real test. Once you have the grinder dialed in it will probably be fine for the entire batch of beans and only need tweaking when the next batch comes in. (Although if you may have to tweak it as the bag ages.)
  - maccard 6y ago
    My experience is 3-4 day old ground coffee was still notably better tasting than freshly ground coffee with the hunk of a grinder I used to use. It obviously depends on how much you drink (our house goes through about 1 bag per week), but as a starting point it's likely to be better than pre ground supermarket coffee, and more accessible than a decent burr grinder. Telling someone who uses a Nespresso to shell out 50 bucks for a Hario skerton, and spend a couple of minutes cranking the hand grinder is probably not going to be the most successful conversion path!

by sien 6y ago

maccard 6y ago

I can't comment on the actual numbers for Australia, but in the UK at least, there are online shops like hasbean that will roast & grind for you for roughly the cost of a bag of premium supermarket coffee. It'll save you the outlay of a grinder (and it's ground with a grinder that will be far more consistent than what you buy).

askvictor 6y ago
But freshly ground coffee is so much different to pre-ground. Once ground, it starts oxidising immediately, so will start to affect the taste pretty quickly.
- Lio 6y ago
  Apart from being fresher, the grind is also one of the ways you control the pressure you extract at in an espresso machine. Depending on the machine you can either time the shots, use a pressure gauge or just look at the flow coming out and verify by taste. It's not much more complicated than if the pressure is too low the shot will taste sour. So you adjust the grinder to grind larger. If it's too low the shot will be overly bitter. So then you grind smaller. I'm told the ideal pressure is 9 bar but really taste is the real test. Once you have the grinder dialed in it will probably be fine for the entire batch of beans and only need tweaking when the next batch comes in. (Although if you may have to tweak it as the bag ages.)
- maccard 6y ago
  My experience is 3-4 day old ground coffee was still notably better tasting than freshly ground coffee with the hunk of a grinder I used to use. It obviously depends on how much you drink (our house goes through about 1 bag per week), but as a starting point it's likely to be better than pre ground supermarket coffee, and more accessible than a decent burr grinder. Telling someone who uses a Nespresso to shell out 50 bucks for a Hario skerton, and spend a couple of minutes cranking the hand grinder is probably not going to be the most successful conversion path!